Chapter 85

Aria’s POV

Whatever plans I had to break away and retrieve my diary immediately leave my mind the moment Harold started to drop.

Lucian caught him first, then eased him down to the ground. But, in the next moment, I was right there beside him, checking his heartrate and his breathing.

His pulse was off the charts.

“He needs the hospital,” I said.

Lucian, even with fear in his eyes, righted himself and called out. “Someone call an ambulance. You!” He pointed at one of his cousins. “Get on that phone. Now!”

The cousin moved at once, rushing toward the phone.

“This isn’t my fault!” Sheila said, becoming hysterical. “Tell him to get up. He’s fine! This isn’t my fault!”

Lucian immediately turned on her. “Quiet, Sheila,” he snapped. “You aren’t helping.” At once he summoned another family member. “Get Sheila out of her, will you? She’s only making things worse.”

Typically, I felt that Sheila would like fight a command like that, but, in the moment, she seemed rather upset with everything. Maybe she actually felt a shred of guilt for a change.

Regardless, I didn’t have time to worry about her, fully focusing on Harold and his care. His shirt was too tight around the throat, so I unbuttoned the top to buttons, allowing airflow. At the same time, I kept my fingers glued to his pulse, ready to perform chest compressions the minute I felt it slip.

Still, his heartrate was out of control. Gods, I hoped that ambulance showed up sooner rather than later.

“Everyone back up,” Lucian shouted, easily slipping back into his leadership role. Even with his own father, he could handle an emergency. As hurt and angry as I still was at him, in this moment, I was also proud that he was my pack leader.

Even if I’d be leaving the pack soon.

I was so focused on Harold that I lost track of time. Lucian was keeping everyone else at bay while I continued to observe his father. Worry clawed at me, because I didn’t have many options if things started to go south. I didn’t bring my medical bag. The ambulance would have what they needed to help his heart rate lower, but Gods knew how far they were away.

I could only observe, make Harold comfortable, and wait.

Finally, some emergency Healers came through the front door. As they moved closer, I told them everything I knew, relaying Harold’s condition and what I’d garnered from reading his vitals.

The Healers looked at me in surprise. “You have medical training?”

I froze a little, realizing I probably should have played dumb slightly. But how could I have, when Harold’s life was on the line?

“We can fit two in the ambulance with us,” the Healers said, after they lifted Harold onto the gurney.

“I’m going,” Julia said at once.

Everyone looked at Lucian, but he was staring at me. “Aria, you go. You’ve been helping him. I’ll follow along in my car.”

There was no time to argue, so with a nod, I rushed forward with Julia, following the Healers and Harold to the ambulance parked outside.

Lucian’s POV

I was moving in a blur. Compartmentalizing my personal feelings, the leader within me came forward, taking charge of the situation, making sure everyone was where they needed to be and doing what needed to be done.

Aria in the ambulance made sense to me. After all, she had been the first to act when Dad fell. Her medical training might have been limited, but it seemed enough to impress those emergency Healers. That was enough to convince me, she’d do the best good at Dad’s side, even if it would only be to help keep Mom calm.

With that settled, with the ambulance packing up and everything else coming together, it was time to get myself to the hospital.

“I’ll go with you,” Jasper said, coming toward me.

I wasn’t happy about bringing Jasper along, but as I’d just sent his girlfriend to the hospital in an ambulance, it made sense for him to also want to go.

Besides, there was no time to argue.

“Fine.” I rushed into my office to grab my keys, then hurried outside. The party guests could figure themselves out – stay or go, it didn’t matter so much to me right now.

My dad was my top priority.

I found Jasper waiting by the passenger side of my car. Once I opened the doors, we entered.

Just as we were about to drive away, Sheila appeared at the door of the house, rushing towards us. Without waiting for her, I quickly backed the car out onto the street and pulled forward.

Sheila called after me, but I didn’t look back, not even in the rear-view.

Far ahead of us, the ambulance raced forward.

Without flashing lights and sirens on my own car, I had to stop at the red light.

Here, in the few seconds waiting in the silence, was when the guilt truly started to set in.

This was all my fault.

Yes, Sheila was the one who had started it by saying those things and pushing back against Dad, but I was the one who had allowed everything to get this far out of control. If I had been able to rein in Sheila much sooner, then none of this would have happened.

My inability to control Sheila was what led to this.

Most of the chaos in my life seemed to stem from Sheila, that much was clear. Yet there was hell all I could do about it.

As things were, I was unable to take any decisive action against her.

In the quiet of the car, with only Jasper and the Gods to see, I finally let my frustration lose and punched the steering wheel. I’d held back my full strength at the last minute, not wanting to break it. But God, even that small break from propriety felt satisfying.

If only everything else inside of me didn’t feel like shit.

Jasper looked at me like I’d grown a second head.

“This is my fault,” I said, revealing my frustration and self-loathing. Of all people I wanted to see this side of me, Jasper was on the very bottom of the list. Ahead of, maybe, Sheila and very few others.

Yet, with the ambulance carrying my father pulling farther and farther ahead of us, all I could do was hate myself for every failing.

What difference did it make how hard I tried to right the wrongs of the past, when everything led to my father being hurt? Or worse?

My worry for Dad kept me too distracted to keep my emotions reeled in closely. Instead, like the top of Pandora’s box popped open everything came out at once.

I opened my mouth and roared, allowing my wolf to show his own frustration.

Then, when my energy was spent. I lowered my forehead down to the crooked steering wheel and tried to catch my breath.

I was falling apart. My façade was cracked, and I wasn’t sure how to slip it back into place again.

“The light is green,” Jasper said, still looking at me.

I looked back.

“Maybe you should pull over,” Jasper said. “Before you hurt yourself or someone else.”